The Alert
by Ba'slan Shev'la
Summary: Peace soothed humanity for years. Integration was a success. No one is prepared for the new faceless enemy that comes without warning, swarming over everything in it's path. (Collection of One-Shots centered around the above concept)


This was it. This was everyone's worst nightmare, and I was standing right in the middle of it. Well, I suppose standing isn't the right word. I was crouched, silently holding my breath in the dark, and hoping that it didn't see me.

Maybe I should go back; back to where it had begun.

The peace had been welcomed by many, in fact, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone that was unhappy with the Human-Covenant treaty that had ended the war. Most people preferred peace over fighting any day of the week, though there were always a few special cases. So when the UNSC came out and said that a peace had been formed, and that the war was over, there was pretty universal celebration. Of course, that was quickly followed by a mourning for the dead.

Years had gone by since then. So many years had in fact gone by, that integration of the species had begun to take place. Grocery stores sold foods that would appeal to species other than humans, and Methane stores began cropping up around the more major cities. No one thought too much of it, and eventually it became more unusual to not spot another species when you were out shopping than it had been to see one. Some of the vendors had even begun employing them; the bakery down the street from my apartment had a Grunt working at the counter that was actually somewhat competent.

That was in bad form, I should apologize. We're not supposed to call them Grunts anymore, now they're Unggoy. Whatever. It really didn't matter in the end. They still killed millions, no, billions of us in the war. They were all assholes as far as I was concerned. Of course, the Elite, no Sangheili, crouched at my side didn't seem too bad. He was actually quite polite, had asked me if he could hide here and everything. Of course, I wasn't going to say no.

I understood better than anyone how fast things could go to shit. I knew how a perfectly routine day could end with your best friend bleeding out on the pavement while you were talking to him; telling him how he had to get up, get moving.

I think I was one of the only people in the shopping mall that wasn't surprised when the emergency alert system went off.

It had been packed today, hundreds of people trying to get what they needed before the stores closed, then trying to make it home for dinner.

It started with one man's personal communicator lighting up, blaring the tone for the emergency alert. They had started that a few years ago, made every piece of available technology into a potentially lifesaving warning system. They had tested it countless times since then, and there were still some bugs in the system. Not everyone got the alert at the same time; sometimes it took a few minutes.

Despite this, it was generally accepted that everyone viewed this as a helpful and useful tool, and welcomed it gladly. Though to be honest, we were all getting sick of the random system tests. I could tell that that's what this man was thinking as he pulled the communicator from his pocket. Something along the lines of "oh no, not another one of these damn tests." That frustrated, tired look disappeared when he glanced at the screen. It was replaced by a look of confusion, and then panic.

That was when my communicator went off. I whipped it out of my pocket, checking it as fast as possible. The message displayed on screen was even more terrifying than the man's face had conveyed to me.

"EMERGENCY ALERT, THIS IS NOT A TEST. Please remain indoors, lock all doors and windows, and cover any exposed openings. Remain as quiet as possible. Do not look outside, or investigate any movement until the all clear signal has been given. We are being invaded by an unknown force of hostile nature, not covenant. Please remain calm, and take the necessary steps to protect yourself. Good luck."

The message repeated once, and then stopped. It was only now that I noticed that everyone else's alerts were going off as well. I looked around, trying to find a good place to hide.

There was screaming coming from the other side of the mall. I looked up through the skylight, and saw what they were screaming about. There was a ship hovering overhead. There were hundreds of small black objects pouring out of it. They weren't powered by anything that I could see, and they weren't flying. They were falling.

My first thought was that they were bombing us, but that wasn't the case. They were dropping… things. I don't know how to describe what they looked like, but they were vaguely humanoid. Two legs and two arms, but there was no discernible head. They looked like they were jet black all over, but I didn't get a good look at them before they began smashing through the skylight. The scariest thing about them was that they had been dropped from several hundred feet in the air with no safety equipment, and then stood up and begun to attack.

They had weapons.

That was the only thing that I could think as I ran into a small shop selling furniture. The light switch was on the wall, and I flipped it off. Then I started to close the barricade at the entrance to the store. That was when the Elite ran up to me.

"Can I take shelter here?" he asked, his tone pleading.

"Of course, get inside!" I said to him. He crouched under the partially closed gate, and then helped me close it. We ran to the back, hiding behind one of the couches there.

"Do you know what these things are?" I asked him.

"No, I have traveled all across the galaxy, but I have not encountered any being quite like this. It as if they are untouchable. You saw how they fell, but got back up. It is unthinkable." The Sangheili said.

"I haven't seen anything like it either. Except the flood. I saw one of the Halo installations, battled the flood. This is a very similar fighting style. They swarm, killing anything in their path. It's possible that they're armored." I said.

"You were on one of the installations? I have been on one as well. The flood was a horrible enemy. You think that these fight the same?"

"I do."

"I wish I had my weapon. But I have only this." The Elite said. He reached into the bag that he carried, pulling out a plasma pistol.

"I have this," I said, pulling out my M6D personal sidearm.

"Then we have a chance." The Elite whispered.

"Shh, they're coming." I said. We sat in silence, hoping that they would pass us by.

There was no way out for us; not really. We were already dead.

They had invaded in force, if the one ship over the mall was any indication, then there could be hundreds of thousands of them spilling out across the planet. There was no way out of this mall, much less off planet.

There was a bang at the front of the store. I leaned around the corner slowly, needing to see what was going on.

The gate that we had closed was gone; nowhere to be seen. One of the… things, was coming inside.

"One of them is in the store." I whispered.

"Then we have no choice." The hulking Sangheili crouched beside me replied. "On the count of three, we attack."

I quietly flicked the safety off of my pistol, and watched as he powered his on. The weapon cast a dim green glow across both of us. I closed my eyes for a moment.

"One," he began, staying so quiet that I had to strain to hear him. "Two."

I could hear the creature moving towards us. It suspected that we were here. I opened my eyes.

"Three."

We sprang up from behind the couch, raising our weapons and firing simultaneously. The creature staggered backwards for half a second, but quickly raised his weapon. A white beam lashed out, sweeping across the Elite to my right, and blinding me in the process. I squatted down behind the couch again. when I looked up, the Elite was gone. There was nothing but swirling dust in the space that he used to occupy.

A second later there was another flash, and the couch was gone. I realized that the pistol in my hands was empty. I closed my eyes, standing to face the enemy.

There was a flash. I felt nothing, then a ripping feeing, as if I was being torn apart. There was a flash of pain, and then nothing.


End file.
